Day 41 - The Tent Pole Situation and Monarch Pass

Comments about comments:

Ryan,
Glad you enjoyed the post. Although I believe you should have said, "Ter-dog and I," not, "me and Ter-dog." Just with you being from England and everything I thought you'd know proper English. Miss me? Too bad I missed your call from Hoosier's Pass. Hope to talk to you and the Ter-dog soon.

Mark,
I think Fountain is north of Pueblo. Pueblo wasn't the greatest but, that really has nothing to do with Fountain. Fountain could be nice. I like the name. And you might be living there soon. If that happens it becomes a great city.

Sam,
Already doing the Cliff bar thing but, thanks for the tip.

Emily and Samuel,
Glad you guys are following along and enjoying! From wherever I end this trip, I do not plan on riding back home. I will package the bike up and fly back. Also, I am interested in putting together a triathlon team to compete in a relay olympic length triathlon when I get back to Cleveland. I know a swimmer, I will be fit to ride, and was wondering if Daniel still runs. I remember him to be a really great runner. Any chance he would be willing to run a quick 10k some time in September?

Christine,
I don't know how to forage in the wild. Also, I don't know how great the fishing is in the desert of Utah and Nevada. Thanks for your concern though....

Monica the Swede (not the cousin),
Your welcome for the map. I hope you get to use it! Looks like Brian is a bit too far ahead of me. Thanks for the comment and enjoy the rest of your trip!


It was a bit brisk as I awoke in Westcliffe. I put on my sweater and rolled downhill to Cotopaxi.

I walked in to the general store there and noticed a gentleman carrying a bicycle helmet and a coffee. As he sat down in the booth he noticed me in my get-up and asked me to sit down across from him. The man was Heinz and he is from Germany. He is spending 6 months in the U.S. bicycle touring. In Germany, he was a math and computer science professor and is now retired. During his sabbaticals, he would come over and tour the U.S. by bike for shorter lengths of time. We had a great conversation and laughed a lot. His English was pretty rough and sometimes he had a hard time understanding me. I mixed in some German to help the conversation along while we ate our breakfast sandwiches. As I was leaving he was making his way over to the phone booth to call his wife. He said it was very important to call the wife. 

I was vaguely aware of the time all day because I was going to be passing through Poncha Springs. If you remember, the post office in Poncha Springs should hopefully have my replacement tent pole. I got to Salida, which is 6 miles east of Poncha Springs, around noon. I have read great things about old historic Salida. However, it is about a half mile off route. I checked the hours of the post office in Poncha Springs about a week ago and I was sure I remembered that they were open after 2PM on Saturday. It was noon and I was already in Salida! I headed off route for the historic downtown. 

Just as I was approaching the downtown area, I noticed an older woman on her bicycle approaching me in a perpendicular direction from the right. I slowed so that our paths would cross and asked her if she recommended any places for lunch. We got to talking and eventually I brought up the fact that I needed to be in Poncha Springs by 2PM to get my tent pole from the post office. At the mention of this, she offered to drive me over to Poncha Springs right away because she was sure they closed at noon. Her house was just 100 feet from where we met and I put my bike on her porch then hopped in her Subaru.

It was 12:42 when we pulled up to the post office. It closed at noon. Hmm, that's interesting. I will have to wait until Tuesday, July 6th, to call because they will be closed on Monday for the holiday. I also will have to pick out a city in Utah to forward the pole to. The tent pole situation continues...

In the car, Margaret and I got to chatting and I found out she has lived in Alaska, where her children were born, Montana, and now Colorado. She's from Illinois and thinks the east coast is too crowded. She loves the wide open spaces of the west. So do I. However, she mentioned that because her and her husband lived as they wanted traveling and living in different places and did not tie themselves down to a job, they do not have much money saved for their retirement. Margaret, of course, was not upset by this. I could tell she saw it as a result of living the way they have. I am sure that if her and her husband's goal was to have a lot of money for retirement, they could have accomplished that no problem. It just wasn't their priority.

When we arrived back in Salida, Margaret and I exchanged four wheels for two and she gave me a lovely tour of historic, downtown Salida. There were three outdoor supply shops that I could try to find a tent pole at and she pointed out her lunch recommendations, along with other points of interest. I gave her the URL of this blog and I hope she leaves a comment! 

After departing with my tour guide, I went into one of the outdoor shops. All of their items were used and I was hoping they had some spare tent poles lying around. After another nice conversation, we concluded that tent poles are too specialized and, despite them having extra poles, none of them would be a good replacement for mine. Ah, well. I had lunch at a nice cafe and then stopped at a grocery store on the way out of town to get food for dinner and breakfast. 

As I continued riding, I though about what Margaret had said about her retirement money. A huge concern for a lot of people, old and young, is having enough money for retirement. Once you start working, you already have it in your head that you are working towards a retirement. You are pouring money into it from every single paycheck. From that, people tend to think, I will work hard until I retire. Then, I can enjoy myself and travel and so forth. Maybe, if I save enough, I can even retire a few years early. Retirement becomes the carrot on the end of the stick or the light at the end of the tunnel. Except, that tunnel can be 40 years long!

I wouldn't trade thoroughly enjoying the next 40 years of my life traveling, working, living in different places, and doing what I want, while running the risk of ending up with no retirement money, for a guarantee of 100 million dollars when I turn 65 only if I work 40 hour weeks with 2 weeks vacation at a job I don't enjoy until then. 

From Poncha Springs, the climbing increased dramatically. I started the day in Westcliffe and descended into Cotopaxi at 6500 feet. I didn't even notice I climbed 1000 feet into Poncha Springs. After Poncha Springs, I was on my way to complete the highest climb that I will do on this entire trip. Sixteen miles later (the last 10 of which were at 6% grade) I was 2.5 miles from the summit of Monarch Pass near 11,000 feet of elevation.

Not very steep. Just long. 

The ascent wasn't all easy. I ran into a terrible rain and hail storm. I stopped and pulled over until it slowed. After the rain cleared and I was nearly 10 miles into the climb, I realized I was not in my lowest gear! I shifted down and that made things considerably easier. I stopped just short of the top because I thought it would be fun to camp on the mountain at such a high altitude. I pulled off route 50 and just set up camp. You are allowed to camp anywhere in a National Forest. 

The tent looks good from this angle.

The summit of Monarch Mountain from my campsite.

Dinner was a turkey sub, a can of mandarin oranges, a Nutri-Grain bar, and a bag of peanut M&M's.  I went to bed early with the hope of reaching the summit as the sun is rising.